So, I finished my misti alpaca sweater and after spending nearly a month and $40 on it, it looks atrocious. The thing came out short and wide even though I tried to lengthen it by adding extra rows. This is my first adult sweater (shirt) and I’m not really sure where I went wrong. The gauge was pretty close.
I’m really upset and am not sure how or if I can fix this. I wish I knew about knitting sweaters.
If anyone has any advice, please help. Until then, maybe I’ll stick to scarves, shawls and things that aren’t supposed to fit to my figure.
Knitwerks 
I’ve already blocked it and I just don’t have the heart to rip it out just yet. I haven’t made a sweater before so I guess now I know. Thanks. I will check out your blog and the link.
You probably don’t want to hear/read this but having the gauge “pretty close” isn’t good enough to make garments that fit. I speak from experience as I knit a beautiful sweater only to have it too small. Even a half of a stitch off per inch multiplied over the width of the sweater can make a big difference on the end result.
The Knitting Fiend has some great calculators if you need to change the gauge. I have a link to it on my blog.
Have you blocked the sweater yet? If not, that might help. If you did block it or don’t think it will help, rip it out and make something else. Make sure you get the kinks out of your yarn before using it again or it can change the guage. You can google techniques for doing that if you aren’t familiar with it.
Good luck and don’t be discouraged.